Bought a Victrola

AAA3330

AAA3330

Super Member
Never thought that I would buy a Victrola, but one came up locally so I got it. I had tried playing some acoustic records on regular turntables and got very discouraged as they sounded like crap with lots of static. Wasn't sure if I would even like the Victrola at first, but after playing some records on it, I really like it. Even on worn disks, the sound quality is usually really good with minimal static. I would highly recommend one to anyone wanting to play some old acoustic records.
 

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Balifly said:
Wow, very cool!

Is that a box of steel needle at the back of the console? :scratch2:
Click to expand...

Thanks. On the left are the compartments to store the needles. What looks like it might be a box of needles on the right is the tag with the serial number.
 
That's in really nice condition. I have a Cheney Talking Machine from 1918. The reasons the acoustic records sound so good on an old Victrola are:
1. They were designed to be played on an acoustic reproducer with a high tracking weight.
2. The records actually have carborundum in the grooves. They were designed to be played with a steel needle, and the carborundum wears the needle down to fit the groove, making better contact. You should replace the needle every few records.
They also used cactus needles but those don't last as long and aren't as good, sound-wise. Enjoy!
 
...An' these ol' things NEVER fail to "Blow people away" when you inevitably "Demonstrate" it to them...Especially the I-pod generation..
 
Funny story:
When we lived in California, we moved into an apartment building shaped roughly like a rectangle, with a courtyard in the inside of the rectangle, and the apartment was built into a hill. We were on the second floor, at the bottom of the rectangle. Everyone had living room windows facing inward and it being California, the windows were open most of the time. Our landlady lived at the top of the rectangle on the second floor. I would play the Cheney and she would come down and tell me to turn it down! I explained that it didn't have an amplifier or even a volume knob. (She was old enough to have seen a Victorola.) I ended up stuffing a pillow into the horn. The thing is amazingly loud for something that doesn't plug into the wall.
 
We have a couple of them here, the volume control on the Edison cylinder machine is a small horn for low volume and a large horn for when you really want to get with it!
 
The Victrola can be pretty loud as well. With some records the volume is almost "ear piercing" when using the "loud" needles.
 
On the Cheney, there is a needle adjuster guide that is mounted on the cabinet, perpendicular to the end of the needle. You adjust the length of the needle for the volume. Long = loud, short = soft.
 
That looks really cool. I'd love to get one of those, but I gotta deal with this Grundig console first............... and I'm sure my wife would kill me if I got yet another record player.
 
I bought an Victrola Orthophonic 4-3 about a year ago for $40 on CL. The cabinet needs refinished because the last owner stripped it, but it sounds REALLY good for an all acoustic machine. I can only imagine what a Credenza model would sound like.
 
I could have had two of these for $75 (one a parts donor, the other in good shape needing a few replacement parts).
The WAF was non-existent, so I passed.

FAIL for me.
 
Bethany & I bought mine at the Highlands Festival in Abingdon, Virginia...She was 12, 13 or thereabouts... its a Polkphone children's phono, made in Atlanta. Since she was with me when I got it, it was "Her's", & if she was over here & somebody came by, she just HAD to show it off to them...I love her husband & am SO happy for the both of them, but I sure do miss My L'il Girlfriend...The daughter I never had.
 
I have had Victrola's since I was a kid, and several different models. The one you own the volume control is the doors to the horn the ones on top, and the ones on the bottom are where you keep your records. Closing the doors is lowering the volume and opening increases it. I have one now that has a knob that controls a damping door inside the horn. You pull it to what degree you want the volume the more you pull it out the more the damping door opens. I have a distant relative that from what I was told has or had a huge collection of the old horn type players. If anyone has ever been to the Yeager sporting goods store in Washington state, the orginal owner was my Grandmothers half brother, I have never met him but my Grandmother and mother has been there and I have some pics and he was a real collector of those nice horn players and from what I was told, a massive old gun collection.
 
It looks to be in very nice shape, unmolested. I've been meaning to buy an upright console Victrola like that for years, but I don't have the room to put one, so I've been putting it off. I look forward to having one.

I have an Edison "Standard" cylinder phonograph, an HMV-101 Gramophone portable and a couple of portable suitcase 78 players.

Playing these old timers is loads of fun, and as Sandy pointed out, it, "...NEVER fail to "Blow people away" when you inevitably "Demonstrate" it to them..." :thmbsp:
 
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